Often Irreverent, Mostly Rational Blog for Fans of the Toronto Blue Jays. One Day, We'll Be Perfect.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Well, that was exhausting

It was another roller coaster game for the Jays.

A Brian Tallet no-hitter into the seventh. Then Cleveland knocks him around and takes the lead. Then the Jays come back. Then they're a strike away from a win, only to have Jesse Barfield's stupid kid come around and score. Then the give up two more runs, only to come back and tie it in the ninth. And then stupid Shawn Camp gives up the winning runs, though the Jays make a game of it in the bottom of the 12th.

And to think that we just wanted to relax and unwind last night. By the end of the game, we were spent after spending a couple of hours rocking back and forth on the edge of our seat.

If you need to find the bright spot in last night's loss, it is that this year's Blue Jays don't have much quit in them. Over the past couple of years, the Jays would generally roll over on their backs and let the opposition rub their bellies when they fell behind. This year, you always have a sense that they'll scrape their way back into the game somehow.

Not just another Major League debutBrett Cecil becomes the third Blue Jays starting pitcher to make his big league debut this season when he takes the mound at 12:37 this afternoon. Cecil has been knocked around at Las Vegas so far this year (0-3, 8.31 ERA, 9 Ks and 8 BBs and a 1.73 WHIP in four starts), although he pitched well in his last start (six innings, three runs, four hits, five Ks and a walk in six innings versus Sacramento).

At this point, Cecil is just being asked to be an arm and to hold the fort (gotta stop using that term) in the short term, so we should probably not lose our heads over today's start. But who's kidding who? We're going to totally lose our minds this afternoon.

Wilner also gets the callSpeaking of getting guys getting the call to fill in, JaysTalk host Mike Wilner will share the play-by-play duties this afternoon with Jerry Howarth on the radiocast. Howarth's usual partner, Alan Ashby, took some time to hang with his family unit in L.A., so Mike on the Mic stepped into the booth and did very nice work in his handful of innings last night.

The game showed the Jays comeback ability BUT the Jays couldn't take advantage of Tallet's almost no hitter. That loss stung, primarily because that game could've gone the Jays way.That was a very tough loss, bringing up shades of last year's problems with extra inning games at home. As for Cecil, they should have brought up Castro instead. Cecil is too raw yet. The Jays lost yesterday and can't afford a sweep. The Red Sox are coming on, so Cecil better pitch well. In the end, this is all on JP, there were other pitchers to bring up, let's not see a blowout today in the wrong direction.

I'm a little confused as to Cito's reluctance - dating back to when he re-claimed his rightful position on the managing throne - to use Brian Wolfe in any capacity whatsoever. Maybe it's selective memory on my part, but he's always seemed to be a reliable reliever during his big-league tenure for the Jays. His only real blackmark was not plunking the next hitter (was it that greaseball Giambi?)after the A-Rod "HA!/MINE" incident.

I can't see how Cecil is more raw than Castro, one year older is not much of a difference. The Jays lost last night because they can't have unlimited innings from Downs and Carlson. That loss was bought and paid for by the Orioles.

The Jays can afford a sweep, but I'd hate to see it. You can not write off a season if they're sitting at 18-11 tomorrow. If this game gets turned over to the bullpens before the 8th inning the Jays win. Those shitbags in the Cleveland bullpen were heroic last night only giving up 3 runs.

@Ack - If the tipping pitches thing is true I'm sure there are plenty of pitchers who will make up for Wolfe's oversight in this matter. I suspect there will be a few fastballs aimed at the Medulla-Oblongata when ol' bitch-tits comes back.